Preserve Toothbrush Now Sold at Wal-Mart

Here is an interesting story that slipped in under the radar screen.  Recycline is selling its Preserve® toothbrush at Wal-Mart stores. 

In their summer newsletter distributed yesterday the company had a blurb mentioning the Preserve was now available at Wal-Mart.  The decision was apparently made in April and was not well publicized... perhaps intentionally?

Recycline said their decision to sell at Wal-Mart was, "not a obvious choice."  "We weighed the pros and cons of working with a retailer that has the broadest reach of any in the world but has been critiqued as having some of the least impressive environmental and social practices," said the company's Founder & President Eric Hudson.

Recycline presented their decision as one that helps engage "increasing numbers of people in taking responsibility for the health of our environment."  They went on to say, "the purchase of a Preserve toothbrush will be the beginning of a journey toward more and more actions that reduce the impact on the Earth."

Founder expresses concern for small-scale retailers; plans special promotions so their sales aren't impacted by Wal-Mart's pricing structure

In a letter posted to the company's web site, Hudson says as a result of his decision to sell at Wal-Mart steps will be taken to ensure their loyal smaller-scale retailers will not be impacted in a negative way.  "We have begun special promotions with our natural and independent retailers that offer more aggressive price discounts on our Preserve toothbrush... to minimize the impact that Wal-Mart's low price may have on their sales," said Hudson.

This story is a puzzler.  Earlier we reported on Recycline test marketing the Preserve at Target stores, which seemed to be a more natural fit for the brand.  The results of the test marketing at Target are unknown. 

Selling at Wal-Mart doesn't seem to be a natural fit for a small brand built on a strong environmental image.  The decision also hasn't been very well publicized to this point which begs the question why. 

If Recycline is comfortable with selling their Preserve at Wal-Mart and believes in the logic behind their decision to do so then they should embrace it.

Comments

[tooth whitening california]

cool its so interesting no doubt,i like to have this one.

by: florence